Wednesday, April 20, 2016

This is a book I’ve seen and contemplated reading for a
while now. I really love Disney (Disneyland, Disney World, Disney movies,
Disney store…) and I loved the Peter and the Starcatchers series that Ridley
Pearson co-wrote. There are just a lot
of them (7.5 so far) so it’s been hard to start that series… But alas, the time came that we were still
waiting for our next How to Train Your Dragon book, and there was nothing else
we could check out, so I found this on CD at the library. Perfect timing.

Overall I think I’d give is 2.5 stars and since I can’t do
half stars – I’d lean toward 3.

I feel like this book had more potential than it actually
delivered. I found myself a bit disappointed with it, though I still enjoyed it
enough. Most of the characters I didn’t
get attached to or really even like. The characters that I liked were Finn,
Amanda, and Phiby. I really disliked Charlene, Willa and Duddard. I go back and forth on how I feel about
Maybeck. The characters didn’t really
have any growth in this story and they all seemed pretty one-dimensional –
though some were just really annoying.
The narrator also didn’t help with the unlikeable characters. The only
female character voice he did well was Amanda’s. I couldn’t stand it when either
Charlene or Willa was talking.

I enjoyed the parts that described the Magic Kingdom and the
rides, as I used to go to Disneyworld often as a kid and was just there about 3
years ago. Some of his references date the book (such as ToonTown is now gone
and MGM is now called Hollywood Studios) but I still enjoyed it. I’m interested
to see if the later books address those changes. I really enjoyed the part about Mickey’s Not
So Scary Halloween Party at the end – I attended this event at Disney World 3
years and loved it. It wasn’t as good at Disneyland last year.

I’m still a little fuzzy on how the whole crossing over
thing works at night. It was something that was hard to believe and hard to
accept. Then there were also parts where they have virtual characters in a
game. Listening to that part was really hard
because it was hard to follow who was what screen name and it just read really
strange. That part would have been better physically reading it.

I didn’t feel like it really captured the magic of Disney at
all. The characters and the theming are what make Disney so magical, and they
were lacking in this story. The only character they really interacted with was
Maleficent. Some of the dolls from It’s
a Small world attacked them, but the way they “defeated” them was absolutely
ridiculous! I have to remind myself
though that this wasn’t written for adults, it was written for middle graders…

The book also just kind of abruptly ends. There is no wrap
up at all, and you don’t get much of a conclusion. I was really disappointed
with the ending. If I end up with nothing else to listen to again, I’ll
probably pick up book 2. But I won’t seek it out specifically.

This graphic novel picks right up where the previous one
left off. As the group discovers that Azula is the head of the Kemurikage, Zuko
goes to drastic measures to try to find the children and his crazy sister. Azula’s plan is not revealed until the very
end of the story, and I say, she’s still pretty crazy and evil! She looked a little off to me in the
illustrations though – I kept thinking it was her eyes, they seemed more gold
that I remembered. As I look at pictures from the TV series, he eyes weren’t
quite that gold, but her eyes also weren’t so open – she kind of always had a
scowl. And her pupils in the comic are smaller - so it may just be her crazy eyes
that make her look different.

I love Zuko and Aang’s relationship. There is mutual respect
there but they tend to have different methods of obtaining the same goal. I
thought this story did it better than some of the previous ones. They stayed on
the same side this time rather than actually fighting with each other.

I love having Suki in the story – and I just want to know
what happens with Suki and Sokka! The suspense is killing me – Korra acted like
he probably didn’t marry her. Ugh. While
Sokka and Katara were absent from this storyline, I really enjoyed having Mai,
Ty-Lee, and Suki in it.

I also appreciated Mai’s reaction to her father. After the
events of this story, she showed a very a mature response to everything that
had happened. It helped remind us that the characters are in fact growing up.

I’m looking forward to what will happen in the next series
of stories – North and South, in which Sokka and Katara will return --- but
will it address more of Azula’s story? Or will we have to continue to wait?

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

I’ll be honest, I’ve seen this book before and thought about
reading it, but the only reason I picked it up to listen to is because it was
the only book after searching and searching that I was able to borrow from the digital
library right then. But I’m really glad
I did!

I've had some bad luck recently with narrators for audiobooks. They've been dull and boring. But this reader, though not the best reader I've listened to (David Tennent is the best!!!), he did a good job at not reading in a monotone and giving several different voices to the characters.

This story is basically a prequel story to the Robin Hood we
know and love. Rob and Little John are side characters in this story, but it
shows how they come to be the head of the Merry Men and what prompts them to
start stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

This is really Will Shackley’s story. He is only 13 years old and his father is
away fighting with King Richard. During this time Sir Guy and Prince John start
taking over and are demanding everyone side with Prince John. If you don’t, bad
things happen. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also in this story and of course
causes some drama.

Once Will joins up with the Merry Men, things started really
getting interesting. I felt the beginning of the book moved a bit slow –
setting up Will’s backstory, skills and the treason. But once you get past
that, the story is very entertaining.
Through most of this book, Will is out for revenge to avenge the death
of someone close to him. I liked watching his motives change by the end of the
story.

I really enjoyed the parts about Much, who is really the
Miller’s daughter pretending to be the Miller’s son. She and Will connect and care about each
other and want each other to be safe.
While there are some hints that they may like each other a little more
than friends, nothing actually happens.

This book has a lot of violence and death in it, and a
mention of a mother breastfeeding her infant.
I think this really qualifies as the very top end of Middle grade books –
the character is young enough, but the content is more YA. This would be a good book for a child who is
transitioning from 6th or 7th grade to 8th and 9th
grade.

The book had a couple of loose ends and was pretty open –
not tied up in a pretty bow. While it does have a very satisfying conclusion,
it also leaves it open for the author to possibly come back and write a sequel
eventually. If the author ever chose to do so, I would happily pick it up.

Monday, April 18, 2016

It is really hard for me to review this book. There were
things I liked about it, and things I didn’t. While I think Cassie Clare is
really milking her series, I still enjoy the world she built and will likely
continue reading her stuff – though maybe I won’t own all of them.

This is the first book of hers that I haven’t gone out and
bought - I checked it out from the library. I loved the Mortal Instruments and absolutely adored the Infernal
Devices (except that epilogue that I still refuse to acknowledge exists).
However, I feel that Lady Midnight has really become the book that Clare is
milking it. There were several times where characters from the other series
would show up at completely random times just so the reader would swoon and go “AWE!”.

I liked getting some updates on the characters we loved
though. But it just didn’t fit with the story. These characters (Emma and
Julian) had met Jace and Clary once during the Dark War. And suddenly they
became best friends and Clary checks in every week? I just don’t believe it. Perhaps if they had
interacted more in the other series it would be more believable…but they live
on the other side of the country! And don’t get me started on the part where
Emma wanted to ride the flying motorcycle because Jace and Clary rode one. And
because her reader would say “How in the world would Emma know that?” Clare puts
in a bit about there being paintings about it. Seriously??? Why in the world
there be paintings about such a random and unimportant part of Jace and Clary’s
story? It was yet another way to remind the reader of this parallel between
Emma and Clary. But all it did was make me feel like Clare thinks I’m stupid as
a reader. Let the reader draw this parallel. They will remember that part from
the Mortal Instrument series. It would have had better impact for the reader to
make that connection themselves.

I feel like if she didn’t specifically point out all the
update info on the characters and parallels like that I would have enjoyed this
more. That’s why I like the Infernal
Devices so much. A last name would pop up that you recognized, but that was
all. It was like solving a puzzle and a teaser for the reader. But this was
just like she purposely added those things in. I didn’t appreciate it. And all
of the scenes felt forced – likely because it didn’t really flow with the story
she wrote.

If I forget about all of the above, the story itself was ok.
It was stretched out a little long though. It was more of a detective story,
which was a bit of a nice change. There also wasn’t any sarcastic, snarky love
interest in this book – which is a change. While I miss my Herondale boys (Will and Jace), I did appreciate that
Clare at least mixed that up. Most of
the characters were likeable, but I just wasn’t attached to any of them like I
was to Tessa and Will and Jace and Clary and Simon.

I still hold a grudge against Clare bringing Jem back from the
Silent Brothers. She set up all these rules in her first two series, and then
BROKE them when she brought Jem back in that epilogue. So having Jem in this,
while I did enjoy seeing him again, I was frustrated that I was seeing him. I
was also frustrated about him being with Tessa. How crappy.

There were also a lot of times that the dialogue just didn’t
flow because she didn’t use contractions. The characters would say something and
in normal every day talking you would use a contraction, but the character didn’t
so they sounded strange and it jarred me out of the story. There is one character where not using
contractions made sense (though I still didn’t enjoy it); it helped maintain
the difference from where this character came from. But it wasn’t just that
character that this would happen with and it happened more than once.

About ¾ of the way in to the book you finally discover where
the title of the book comes from. I’m
still not 100% clear on who is on the cover…but I’m pretty sure I know. The
story behind the title is pretty good. I was happy with that part of the book.

About half way through the book we finally started getting
somewhere in their investigation. It had been pretty slow up until then. But it
finally picked up and from then on it got good. There was a big twist at the
end when you find out who the villain is. I really liked the story behind the villain
of this story because you can feel a bit of sympathy – I like stories where you
feel some sympathy for the bad guy because it creates this conflict within the
reader. I didn’t have a lot of conflict with this character, but there was just
a tad bit of sympathy in my heart.

We get about 100 pages of wrap up. I always appreciate a
good wrap up, but this was almost excessive to me. I found myself just wanting
to have it finished already! I think
this is the shortest epilogue Clare has ever written…and it definitely let you
know what will be coming in the second book.

While I enjoyed the story between Julian and Emma, of course
there has to be love drama. And of course the only way Clare can cause drama
between characters is by creating this love triangle. So even though there
really ISN’T a love triangle, she creates one anyway… Because it couldn’t have
had enough drama with just the “parabatai curse”. UGH.

There is also a bonus story at the end of the hardcover from
Clary’s perspective. Again, this mostly seemed like it was there to have all
the characters you enjoy from the previous series show up. I really enjoyed the first few pages, but
after that it just got a little silly with all the different characters who
came. BUT THAT ENDING!

If I rated the book on just the story itself, I would
probably give it 4 stars, but because of those forced scenes, contractions and
forced love triangle and such, I think I need to demote it to 3 stars – which is
disappointing because I’m so used to loving her stuff.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

I found it hard to pay attention while listening to this
book. I recommend not reading this one,
and just letting the Mysterious Benedict Society be a standalone book…read below
for why…

It started off a year after the first book ended. Therefore, we are regurgitated a little bit
about what happened to each child during that year after they split up. It was
interesting enough at the beginning to see the reunion.

However, shortly in to their new adventure I found myself
bored. It wasn’t exciting and it started getting a little farfetched. Constance has this “ability” to see patterns
and tell who is coming based on their footsteps. Really? That’s not a normal
ability. Sticky also starts having a
bigger and bigger memory – which just seems like something convenient the
author put in there so they wouldn’t have to research anything.

I enjoyed the first one when the kids were a little more
realistic in their “intelligence”…but the author is going too far – and this
book just wasn’t very interesting or exciting.
I read several reviews about the third book and it sounds like it gets
even worse. Apparently Sticky remember an entire library worth of information,
Constance becomes psychic, and Reynie gets a “sixth sense”. This has
essentially become a paranormal story, but still wants to be called normal.

I wish this series had stayed either one way or the other.
It feels like the author wrote it as one book, and then it did well, so either he
or the publisher wanted to make it a series. Therefore he had to come up with
ideas for sequels, and it just wasn’t the same.
With all of this said, as much as it pains me not to finish a series, I
will not be continuing this. There are so many books in the world it’s not
worth it to waste time on a book I’m not going to enjoy.